


Part of My Chemistry

by lovetheblazer



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chemistry, College Student Chris, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship, Teaching Assistant Darren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 07:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5407511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovetheblazer/pseuds/lovetheblazer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Advent Prompt #11: Teaching Assistant!Darren and College Student!Chris with a science lab experiment gone wrong. Chris gets worried Darren is hurt since he's the one who blew up the thing because of a bet on how to make your teacher lose his cool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Part of My Chemistry

**Author's Note:**

> Day 11 of the Advent Challenge I'm doing daily through Christmas Eve. Prompts have been anonymously submitted by my followers.

Chris is a planner. He wrote his first short story at age seven and decided writing would be his career by the time he was nine. It's a conviction he never wavered on. By junior high and high school, he was planning all his courses and extracurricular activities (of which he signed up for the bare minimum possible while still having a passable resume for college applications) around what would help him develop his writing and strengthen his applications to colleges with strong creative writing programs. Now, many years later, he's finally made it to the University of Michigan and aside from the school's obsessive interest in football, he's pretty damn happy with his choice. He's got professors that understand him, that have been published themselves and understand his drive to achieve the same, that give him actual criticism and feedback on what he's writing. Chris feels like he belongs here in Ann Arbor, like he's home in a way he never felt in Clovis, not even on the best of days. All his years of planning and striving and working and dreaming have finally paid off.

The one thing Chris had absolutely never planned for was falling in love with his teaching assistant. Chris would never write something so cliched for any of the characters in his novel, so the fact that he's become a walking cliché himself is a shameful secret he finds himself constantly trying to deny. But then he walks into his Chemistry lab section at 6 PM every Thursday and he looks at stupid Darren with his stupid riot of curls and stupidly compact frame and melodious voice and stupidly cute smile and he just falls all over again. Basically, he's fucked.

* * *

 “Chris, hey, psst,” a girl in his lab group whispers, nudging him in the ribs. It takes him an embarrassingly long time to register that she's talking to him because he's really distracted by the way Darren's ass bounces as he walks from group to group, checking in on everyone’s progress with this week's experiment.

“Huh? Oh, what was that, Lauren?” he asks.

“Man, space cadet much?” she teases, though her grin tells Chris that it’s a friendly ribbing.

He's still not quite used to that – having other students in class be nice to him. He doesn't really trust their interest in him, assuming there must be some sort of catch or giant practical joke looming behind every friendly interaction. It's been two years since he graduated high school and left years of bullying behind him, but the scars are still there. Chris hopes they will fade with time, that one day he'll be able to trust more readily and leave his suspicion in the past where it belongs.

“Sorry, I guess I was... distracted,” he manages, traitorous eyes automatically going back to Darren again, watching him lean in to study what a petite brunette in the front row is doing over a beaker. He feels a hot flash of irrational jealousy as she laughs and puts her hand on Darren's arm. Chris is pretty sure at least half the class is a little in love with Darren, the handsome, laid back teaching assistant of every student's dreams. He shakes his head imperceptibly, trying to clear it of the mental images his brain automatically supplies. “Anyways, what's up?” he prompts, looking at Lauren and definitely  _not_  following Darren's movement around the lab room in his peripheral vision. Okay fine, maybe a little.

“Well, we've got a small bet going and I just wanted to see if you wanted in,” Lauren begins, grinning and exchanging a loaded glance with the other two guys in their lab group. “You know how Darren is like, world's most laid back TA?”

“Yes,” Chris sighs. It's true, Darren's so laid back Chris isn't even sure how he manages to stay upright most of the time. It's mostly a good thing, since the majority of the deadlines for their lab section aren't so much hard and fast dates as they are mostly suggestions. Between that, the lax attendance policy, and generous bonus points, Chris's grade is higher than it's ever been in a science course before. The only thing Darren has really been strict on is the safety demonstration they did at the beginning of the semester and their lab dress code which requires they wear closed toed shoes and the silly plastic safety goggles during experiments.

“Well, Joey bet me that he can totally get Darren to break a sweat and yell by the end of the class. I think there's no way, personally,” Lauren chuckles. “You in?”

“What are the stakes? What's Joey planning?” Chris wonders aloud, leaning in and glancing over to see Joey feverishly hunched over his lab notebook, consulting with his textbook every so often.

“He won't tell me. Wants it to be a surprise,” Lauren explains, rolling her eyes. “I said it couldn't involve murder or like, propositioning Darren for a blowjob in the middle of classroom, obviously. Other than that, I pretty much left it up to his discretion.”

Chris mouth drops open at the brazenness of the comment, shocked and vaguely jealous again, though he knows it's ridiculous to feel that way about a hypothetical with no basis in reality.

“I know, I know, you're probably thinking 'why would Lauren even need to specify that' but what you probably don't realize about Joey is that he has absolutely no sense of shame. He'll say or do just about anything to make someone laugh and when there's a bet at stake, he's ten times worse,” Lauren rambles, giggling fondly.

“Speaking of stakes, what are we betting here? Hopefully not money, because the whole broke college student thing is a cliché for a reason, at least in my case,” Chris tells Lauren.

“Oh no, not money. Where's the fun in that? No, we were thinking that the losing side has to write up the lab report for this week's experiment. So, Joey and Brian are on Team We Can Totally Crack Darren and I'm firmly in the No Way in Hell You Can Shake Our Unflappable TA camp. Thoughts?” Lauren asks him, tilting her head to one side quizzically.

“Definitely with you. I don't know if he smokes a shit ton of pot before every class or what, but yeah, pretty sure he's unshakeable,” Chris agrees.

“Excellent,” Lauren cheers. “Welcome to the winning team,” she congratulates, holding up her hand for a high five. “Definitely looking forward to not having to write up this week's assignment, but I might be looking forward to lording it over Joey when we win even more.”

Joey leans over and studies them for a moment, before furrowing his brow in an attempt to look even vaguely menacing. It's sort of undercut by the bright yellow t shirt he's wearing, covered in cartoon depictions of all the Muppets. “You two are going down,” he whispers, then turns back to Brian, gesturing towards his notebook. Brian nods, then begins retrieving various chemicals from the supply cabinet underneath their lab table.

“So yeah,” Lauren murmurs, “this should be fun...”

* * *

“Okay, it's about to go down,” Lauren whispers to Chris thirty minutes later. Just over half of the lab groups have already dispersed, since Darren allows students to leave as soon as they've completed their experiment and turn in their lab reports the following week instead of making them write everything up during class. Their group has been lingering on purpose, since Brian and Joey insisted they needed less of audience for their prank to have maximum impact. Chris still isn't entirely sure what form this prank is going to take but he's pretty sure it involves Chemistry, since he's never seen Joey and Brian so intently study their textbooks before, not even during the course's open book midterm exam. “Joey said we should take three steps back from the lab table.”

Chris nods, taking a deep breath and slowly edging away from the table. Once he's at a safe distance, he glances over at Lauren and signals to her to do the same thing. He figures they can't afford to appear too coordinated or it might draw Darren's attention prematurely. Once she's backed away as well, she sends a meaningful look in Joey's direction and he picks up a beaker and pours a clear liquid into one of the two large vials meant to be used for this week's experiment – the one they already haphazardly rushed through in an attempt to get to the fun part, aka seeing if their TA is as laid back as he seems.

Brian passes Joey a second beaker filled with a clear blue solution, one Chris doesn't recognize as any of the ones they've used in lab so far. Joey is just about to add it to the vial when Chris notices Darren starting to make his way over to their table.  _Shit._

Darren frowns as he also notices that the color of the liquid doesn't match the chemicals meant to be used in this week's experiment. He starts heading their way faster now and Chris assumes that Joey must notice out the corner of his eye by the way he hurries to start pouring it into the vial.

“Wait, hang on. I think you got something mixed up or–” Darren begins to warn Joey, but it's too late. He's already dumped the entire beaker in. The mixture starts foaming and smoking almost immediately. Joey seems prepared for this, casually dropping the empty beaker to the table before he backs up a little. Brian, on the other hand, jumps a mile and does a ridiculous flailing backwards run as he tries to get out of the way.

Chris eyes widen in shock. Despite Lauren's warnings about Joey's ruthlessness in pursuit of winning a bet, he hadn't really expected their plan to be quite so... dangerous.

“Okay, everyone out!” Darren announces to the students still milling around. He raises his voice enough to carry to the half dozen students still working, but Chris notes with a certain smugnesses that Darren's not really yelling, and he still looks remarkably nonplussed considering the exploding volcano in the middle of the lab room. Lauren bumps him with her hip and gives Chris a look, making it clear that she's thinking exactly the same thing.

“Seriously, I mean it. You'll all get full credit, don't worry, but it's really not safe to be in here right now, so please grab your things and leave now,” Darren commands.

Joey exchanges a look with Brian, shrugging his shoulder and reaching for his backpack on the floor, clearly thinking the best thing they could do is get the fuck out now while they can.

“Hang on, not you,” Darren calls, standing back at a safe distance while he watches the chemical reaction which still shows no signs of abating. “What exactly did you put in there? Whatever it was definitely wasn't on the list of supplies for this week's experiment.”

“It wasn't?” Brian asks innocently, clearly reveling in playing dumb. It sort of works thanks to his cherubic face and the high, shaky voice that makes him look much younger than the other students in lab.

“No, it wasn't and I'm pretty sure you know that,” Darren sighs, looking from Brian to Joey disapprovingly. “Do  _you_  remember what you poured in?” Darren presses, turning to Joey. “It's sort of important for putting it out safely.”

“Um, not really? It was... blue and I found it underneath the table in the supply cabinet. Sorry, man,” Joey admits, throwing up his hands helplessly.

“Alright, just go,” Darren grumbles, waving them away. He takes a step towards the smoking vial, but then it starts to overflow onto the table and splatter and Darren backs up again, regarding it warily.

“Where did I put that fire extinguisher?” Darren mutters to himself.

Chris angles his head towards the front of the room, locating the fire extinguisher stored in a clear plastic box set into the wall behind the lecture podium. “I'll grab it,” Chris offers, jogging to retrieve it. He figures it's the least he can do. He didn't have any idea of what Joey and Brian had planned and certainly wouldn't have endorsed it if he realized how dangerous it was, but  _still_. He can't help but feel guilty and slightly responsible.

“Here, got it, Darren,” Chris announces, running over and passing the fire extinguisher to him.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Darren murmurs gratefully. “But you should probably leave now.”

Chris shakes his head no immediately. He feels weirdly unsettled at the idea of leaving Darren alone to deal with the caustic chemicals that are smoking and splattering all over the table and floor at their feet. It feels like a fairly dangerous and fraught situation and Chris has enough of a crush that his concern for Darren's wellbeing outweighs his anxiety about his own safety.

Darren furrows his eyebrows at Chris, seeming curious about his refusal to leave the room. “Okay, well at least step back a little, please? I don't know how the chemicals are going to react.”

Chris nods and complies, standing a few feet behind Darren while he pulls out the pin to activate the fire extinguisher and trains the end of the nozzle at the glass vial. Darren squeezes the lever and thick ropes of white foam begin to cover the spattering chemicals. Chris holds his breath, assuming that will be the end of crisis, but the extra weight of the foam causes the glass vial to fall out of its holder and onto the table several feet below. The thin glass shatters and the remaining chemicals in the tube go flying in Darren's direction.

“Look out!” Chris yells, lunging forward and grabbing hold of Darren's shoulder to jerk him backwards and away from the caustic chemicals.

He manages to get Darren out of the way just in the nick of time, thankfully, but in the process of moving Darren a small amount of the chemical mixture splashes onto the back of his hand. For a moment, nothing really happens and Chris thinks maybe he's fine, but then his skin starts burning something fierce. “Jesus fuck,” Chris hisses under his breath, shaking his hand in hopes that it'll lessen the sting somehow. It doesn't really work.

Darren whirls to face him at the sound of cursing. “Chris?” he asks, eyes going almost comically wide in concern as he watches Chris shake his hand, hopping up and down and swearing in pain. Chris starts to reach out in an attempt to wipe at the painful spot on his hand, but Darren grabs the wrist of his injured hand before he can. “No no, don't rub it!” he warns in a strangled voice, definitely the closest he's come all evening to a true yell.

Darren wraps his free arm around Chris's waist and half walks, half carries him over to the emergency eye wash and shower station as fast as his legs will carry them both. Before Chris can even draw a shaky breath, Darren's pulling the cord to activate the shower and directing Chris's hand under the spray. Chris startles at the sensation of ice cold water pouring over his hand and arm, little droplets trickling down from there before finally bouncing off his shoes. But within seconds, his body adjusts to the temperature and then he's sighing in relief because his skin no longer feels like it's going to melt or burn off.

Darren's gaze flies to Chris's face at the sound of his sigh. “Hey, talk to me. You okay?” he asks, seeming terrified that Chris will say he's not.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine,” Chris tells him. Darren shakes his head, not seeming entirely convinced.

“Seriously, it's like a thousand times better now,” he insists. “That was a good sigh. A sigh of relief.”

Darren nods, his shoulders relaxing a millimeter. “I'm glad,” he murmurs. “Is it just your hand that got splashed or did it get you somewhere else? If any got on your clothes, you really should take them off, because if not, the chemicals could burn through the fabric and into your skin and I–”

“Darren, breathe,” Chris interrupts, cutting him off mid-ramble. “It was only that one tiny spot on my hand. My clothes are good, too.”

“Oh, that's... uh, good,” Darren manages, cheeks flushed. It's only then that Chris notices that Darren's taking the brunt of the shower spray. His white linen button-down shirt is drenched and completely transparent as a result, revealing small, perky nipples hardened to points. Chris swallows hard and looks away, using every ounce of willpower he has in him to resist the urge to look at the rest of Darren, definitely curious if his jeans are similarly wet and clinging to his ass and muscular thighs.

“Are  _you_  okay?” Chris checks, wondering if Darren got splattered before he could pull him away. “Did you get burned?”

“Hmm? Oh no, I'm fine, thanks to you,” Darren says, smiling softly at Chris. “That was really stupid of you, though,” he gently chastises.

Chris takes a deep breath, preparing his apology. He assumes Darren saw through Joey and Brian's proclamations of innocence and figured out that the entire lab group had to be involved in the explosive shenanigans.

“I mean, I'm your TA. You shouldn't be sacrificing yourself for me. If anything, it should be the other way around,” Darren continues, looking regretful.

“I wasn't sacrificing myself. I just wanted to help get you out of the way so you didn't get an unintentional acid peel. Besides, it all worked out okay in the end, right?” Chris shrugs as best he can one-handed.

“No, it didn't work out okay. Look at your poor hand,” Darren sighs, leaning into the spray a little more so he can examine the burned area across two of Chris's knuckles and a small area on the back of his hand.

“It's barely red and it doesn't even hurt anymore, Darren,” Chris promises. “Seriously, if you want to get out of the freezing cold water and save what's left of your wardrobe, I think I'm good now.” Chris tugs at his hand a little, assuming that Darren will release the grip on his wrist. But instead, Darren shakes his head and only holds on tighter, smoothing his thumb over Chris's palm.

“Definitely not. I'm going to hold you here until it's been a full five minutes, because that's what is recommended to flush your skin or eyes when you've been in contact with an unknown chemical,” Darren explains, his voice firm.

“And then I can go home and get out of these soggy shoes, right? I have this thing about wet socks,” he adds, shuddering in mock horror.

“No, you can't. Once it's been five minutes, I'm taking you to the campus health center whether you like it or not,” Darren insists.

“Really not necessary,” Chris protests. “It's just a tiny little burn. It doesn't even hurt,” he lies. The truth is it does hurt, though only a little. It's certainly no worse than any of the times he's accidentally caught his finger on the side of a hot pan or cookie sheet while baking.

“Look, while you're in lab, you're my responsibility,” Darren huffs impatiently. “Chemical burns are nothing to scoff at. If you went home and it got worse, god forbid, the university could be held liable. And if I hadn't handled it properly by insisting that you seek medical treatment, I could lose my job as a TA.”

“Okay,” Chris sighs, feeling defeated and embarrassed. “Sorry.  _Again._ ”

“It's all right. I'm not mad,” Darren promises.

“You're not?” Chris is genuinely shocked, because by all accounts, Darren  _should_  be mad at him. “Even though our group made a huge mess of your classroom, nearly injured you, and caused you to waste the rest of your night on taking a stupid student to the health center instead of whatever fun thing you had planned?”

“I think you vastly overestimate how exciting and eventful the social life of grad students is, dude. And besides, you're not stupid and I definitely don't regard spending some extra time with you one-on-one to be any real hardship,” Darren admits with a shy smile. “I just wish you hadn't had to injure yourself in order to make it happen.”

“Hey, it worked, right?” Chris teases. “I got your attention.”

“Nope,” Darren replies immediately.

“...it didn't?” Chris asks, perplexed and embarrassed in equal measure. How is it possible that he's  _still_  reading this situation wrong? Has he somehow confused Darren's professionalism and concern with genuine romantic interest?

“Chris, you had my attention from the first lab meeting, pretty much from the moment you waltzed into class five minutes late wearing jeans so tight they looked practically painted on. There was no need to blow something up to get me to pay attention to you, trust me,” Darren confesses.

“But if you noticed me before, why didn't you...?” Chris trails off, feeling silly. It hardly matters now, as long as what Darren's saying is true.  

“I'm your TA, Chris. I can't just hit on my students willy-nilly. There are rules. I've never been much of a rule-follower, but I'm also not dumb enough to indiscriminately hit on my students without knowing if...” Darren stops there, unable or unwilling to finish the thought.

“If what?” Chris presses.

“If it's mutual. If they are interested in me, too.”

“I was,” Chris says instantly. Darren's face falls slightly and Chris amends the statement. “I am, I mean. I was then and I still am, okay?”

“Since when?” Darren wants to know.

“Since that review session when I was the only student who showed up and we wound up spending at least half of the time talking about books and movies instead of Chemistry,” Chris says.

“Yeah, that was... it was a good night,” Darren agrees, smiling at the memory. They both startle at the sound of the shower unceremoniously cutting off. “Looks like it's been five minutes. Time to head over to the health center,” Darren announces.

Chris grumbles a little, but doesn't put up much protest. He's looking forward to spending more time with Darren, even if they are both wearing damp clothes now and already shivering. “But yeah, I'd say that was a great night, even,” Chris adds. “So, does this mean we can go out sometime?”

“I mean, ideally we would wait until after finals when you aren't my student any longer. That's only what, ten more days?”

“I can't wait that long,” Chris blurts out before he has the chance to overthink it or take it back.

Darren's smile is so wide it nearly splits his face. “Neither can I.”

“Good. So we're going to do this, then?”

“Absolutely. How's Saturday night?” Darren inquires.

“Saturday's perfect.”

“One condition,” Darren adds. “And this is non-negotiable, so hopefully it won't be a deal breaker for you...”

Chris takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out, a little worried about what Darren's going to ask of him. “Okay, shoot,” he finally says.

“You have to stay far away from chemicals and anything volatile or flammable,” Darren teases, eyes sparkling.

Chris opens his mouth to say something snarky but before he can manage it, Darren's speaking up again. “No seriously, I mean it. No candlelight dinner for you, I'm afraid. I don't trust you not to set your sleeve or my napkin on fire.”

“Hey now, haven't I suffered enough for one day?” Chris weakly protests. He holds up his hand, showing off the small swath of reddened skin across his knuckles. “I'm injured, after all,” he pouts, really playing it up.

“Poor baby,” Darren whispers, winding his arm around Chris's waist and guiding him in the direction of the parking lot where his car is parked. “Let's go get you fixed up.”

“Or...” Chris interjects, a teasing grin playing around the corners of his mouth.

“Or?” Darren prompts.

“Maybe you could kiss it better?” Chris replies, cheeks flushing and stomach fluttering with nerves at the mere suggestion.

“Seems like it would be the... responsible thing to do,” Darren hums agreeably.

“Yes, very professorial,” Chris confirms.

Darren groans as he leans in. “Please shut up and kiss me.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Share fic on Tumblr](http://lovetheblazer.tumblr.com/post/135029924855/part-of-my-chemistry)
> 
> Read Previous Advent Fics on: [AO3](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Advent_Fics_by_lovetheblazer) or [Tumblr](http://lovetheblazer.tumblr.com/tagged/advent-fics-by-lovetheblazer)


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